Executive Branch, Quotations & Speeches, United States History - General & Miscellaneous, U.S. - Political Biography, U.S. Politics - History
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Overview
After four years in the White House, Martin Van Buren quipped, "As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrendeer of it." Even Thomas Jefferson--one of the country's Founding Fathers--struggled with the realities of the job, saying, "No man will ever bring out of the presidency the reputation which carried him into it. To myself, personally, it brings nothing but increasing drudgery and daily loss of friends."An American president must ultimately take responsibility for the direction of the country, an ideal succinctly expressed by Harry S. Truman, who told his fellow citizens that "the buck stops here." Embracing that sense of responsibility may have been easier for some presidents--Calvin Coolidge and William Jefferson Clinton, for instance, both held the office during economic booms--than for others, who served during more trying times. But even presidents like Franklin D. Roosevelt, who occupied the White House at a time of war, nonetheless resolutely took up the gauntlet of protecting and improving the social and economic welfare of the American people.
Of course, hard times test the mettle of every president, however golden the age in which he serves, because the problems of the country--and the world--are often left at the president's feet. And though he can rely on the counsel of his Cabinet as well as the Congress and Senate, the burden of making each decision, not to mention accepting the consequences, rests squarely on his shoulders alone. As John F. Kennedy remarked, "No easy problem ever comes to the President of the United States. If they are easy to solve, somebody else has solved them."
And what is life like after a president's term ends? After the inaugural speeches, State of the Union addresses, summits and conferences, bills passed or vetoed, a president leaves office feeling an enormous sense of relief. But, of course, this isn't the only emotion these men deal with in retrospect. Frequently, with more time to contemplate the past, regret also becomes a companion for some ex-presidents. In his memoirs, Lyndon B. Johnson confided, "I regretted more than anyone could possibly know that I was leaving the White House without having achieved a just, an honorable, and a lasting peace in Vietnam."
Within the pages of The American President: A Complete History--perhaps the most authoritative and readable single-volume reference work of its kind--historian Kathryn Moore presents a riveting narrative of each president's personal and political experiences in and out of office, along with illuminating facts and statistics about each administration, fascinating timelines of national and world events, astonishing trivia, and much more besides. These details are here woven together to present a complex and nuanced portrait of the American presidency, from the nation's infancy to today.
Book Details
Published
June 11, 2026
Publisher
Sterling
Pages
832
Format
Hardcover, 2007
ISBN
9780760780954